Williams Crushes Pennetta, Captures Acapulco Title

It was the dream final everyone was waiting for, but while one of the two played fine the other one played out of this world, as Venus Williams routed Flavia Pennetta for her 41st career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title at the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL presented by HSBC.

From the start of the week, Williams and Pennetta were heavy favorites to reach the final, but neither of them had a smooth ride. Williams was pushed to three sets in her first three matches of the week, although she did pull off a 60 63 semifinal win over Barbora Zahlavova Strycova; three of Pennetta's pre-final victories ended in straight sets, but she was almost bundled out in the quarterfinals, rallying from 62 20 down to beat Petra Cetkovska, 26 63 60.

It could be argued that Pennetta held a mental edge over Williams going into the final, as she had won three of their five previous meetings. And those wins had come consecutively - at Bangkok in 2007 then Roland Garros and Moscow in 2008 - making her one of only seven players ever to pull off the hat-trick on Williams (and the other six to pull it off are all former world No.1s or world No.2s).

Williams was all over Pennetta in the final, though. Her serve was on fire (she lost just 13 points in her eight service games, five of those coming from double faults) and she was devastating on the return too (breaking Pennetta four out of seven times). The much-hyped final was over in only an hour and two minutes, 61 62.

Last week in Dubai, Williams became the first active player to win 40 singles titles on the Tour; now, she takes home No.41. She has won 20 of her last 21 matches, claiming titles late in 2008 at Zürich and the Sony Ericsson Championships and now Dubai and Acapulco; a second round loss to Spain's Carla Suárez Navarro at the Australian Open is the only blemish in the incredible 20-1 stretch, and she had a large third set lead and match point in that one, too.

"I started the week very tough. I had such difficult matches. Three three-setters in a row, each more difficult than the last," Williams said. "I think I deserved this win tonight. I played hard all week and tonight my serve and my game all came together. I loved coming to Mexico and winning my 41st Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title here. I hope to be back next year to defend it."

Pennetta was playing her sixth straight final in Acapulco, and is now 2-4 in those (winning in 2005 and 2008 but finishing runner-up in 2004, 2006, 2007 and now 2009). The talented, fiery Italian is now 6-9 overall in Tour singles finals.

"What happened to me? Venus Williams is what happened to me. The No.5 player in the world is what happened to me!" joked Pennetta, after being asked what happened to her. "She was just playing so strong, serving so well, it was hard to fight against her power. I didn’t feel I played badly, she just overpowered me.

"I am not sad to leave like this. I had a great week, reaching the final again. The people here are so nice, they do everything to make the players feel at home, and I feel like this is my second home. The best fans are in Acapulco and I really appreciate their support. All credit to Venus for playing a great match."

Earlier Saturday, Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez won their third doubles title together on the Tour, notching a 64 62 win over another all-Spanish team, Lourdes Domínguez Lino and Arantxa Parra Santonja, in the final. Llagostera Vives and Martínez Sánchez were also champions in Acapulco last year and in Bogotá last week, and each have seven Tour doubles titles now.